Leakin of Tarantino’s script forces legal action

Actor, director, and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino filed a copyright lawsuit against Gawker Media as of Jan. 27 over disseminating copies of his new Western script and pre-production movie “The Hateful Eight.”

The director told Deadline.com he was “very very depressed” after news of his new script being leaked on Gawker’s Defamer website.

He has decided to publish the script rather than make it into a film.

According to Gawker’s Defamer website, “The Hateful Eight” centers on eight lawless characters during the Wild West whose paths eventually collide through chance and circumstance.

The story revolves around two bounty hunters who are returning to Red Rock with a ‘Dead or Alive’ prisoner to gain a hefty reward. Along the trail, the the bounty hunters’ tales unfold.

The director is taking Gawker Media to court after their website posted a link on one of their blogs titled, “Here Is The Leaked Quentin Tarantino ‘The Hateful Eight’ Script” which included the first ever draft of the entire 146 page script.

The blog contains multiple links for downloading the script and Tarantino claims Gawker’s links have further pushed the script out into public.

A legal complaint was filed to the U.S. District Court charging Gawker with copyright infringement and contributory copyright infringement.

“Gawker Media has made a business of predatory journalism, violating peoples’ rights to make a buck. This time they went too far. Rather than merely publishing a news story reporting that Plaintiff’s screenplay may have been circulating in Hollywood without his permission, Gawker Media crossed the journalistic line by promoting itself to the public as the first source to read the entire Screenplay illegally,” stated Tarantino’s lawsuit which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

The complaint also stated that Gawker has refused “repeated demands” to remove the article in which the links were available.

The development of the leak first happened after Tarantino personally gave out the script to only a handful of actors whom he had in mind for parts in the film.

While talking with Deadline he suggested that the agents of either Michael Madsen or Bruce Dern were responsible for the original leak.

“I gave it to three actors: Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth. The one I know didn’t do this is Tim Roth. One of the others let their agent read it, and that agent has now passed it on to everyone in Hollywood,” said Tarantino.

Taratino’s decision to publish the script rather than make a movie has caused panic amongst fans and followers. We will have to wait and see about Tarantino’s final decision in the near future.